On Saturday 28th March Eco-Congregation Scotland celebrated our 25th anniversary at our Annual Gathering and AGM in Perth. Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day either in person or online. Our special thanks to our speakers, and to all the volunteers from St Matthew’s Church of Scotland who made us so welcome and supported the running of the event.
Marjorie Clark, Session Clerk at St Matthew’s opened the day with prayer. Our morning speakers included Sharon Hall from Operation Noah who spoke their Church Land Use Vision, and Carolyn MacPhee from SCCAN (Scottish Communities Climate Action Network).
Adrian Shaw and Margaret Warnock then led us through a reflection on the last 25 years, with those in the room and online adding their stories. You can read more about the history of Eco-Congregation Scotland here.
Before our AGM, we launched our new website, with thanks to Gerard Donnelly of We Contribute. We will continue to add resources, news and events to our new website in the coming weeks.
We then shared in some delicious cake.
At the AGM we heard from our Chair, Richard Murray and Treasurer Mary Sweetland and welcomed Sarah Young to the board of Trustees.
In our afternoon sessions we heard from Catherine Lloyd, Tayside Biodiversity Project about the many ways to connect with nature in our church grounds. Stephen Curran led a workshop on connecting on issues for the Scottish Parliament election in May. Fintan Hurley and Russell McLarty led a workshop on connection with other people. Our Chaplain David Coleman shared with us on connecting through prayer in a climate crisis before leading our closing worship.
During the day people were asked to look back and reflect on what they were thankful for over the last 25 years. Here are some of the things they said:
“The opportunity to encourage so many churches to care for Creation”
“Knowing that caring about creation is not just me in the church”
“Involvement in action, learning and sharing worship with an Eco heart”
Thank you again to everyone who came and along and made the day possible and also to everyone who has been involved in Eco-Congregation Scotland over the last 25 years.
